Are you wanting comments on your strokes? Feedback as to your possible rating?

Thousands of kids have pretty strokes, especially off fed balls from a machine. Not everybody can play tennis with the kind of inherent instinct, brains, strategy, etc. that it takes to play at a high enough level.

If you're thinking of submitting said video to colleges, better to have a video of you playing a match.

kctennis1005 - i think i can play d1 tennis even if i do walk on. i think that the divisions don't necessarily mean much, as an excellent thread by coach carter proved. i'm obviously not going to play at stanford, but i think i can play maybe mid range d1 school or lower. however, the overall theme of what i want to accomplish is simply making a tennis team at the college level, no matter what division. i would just like to play and to improve.

10isDad - Obviously you couldn't decipher what type of feedback I wanted when I posted this video. I wanted anything helpful, which is exactly the reason I did not have specific questions or specific concerns. Auspicious remarks would be best however

Well, you posted the thread in the college section, so there's somewhat of an implication that this is a college recruiting video - especially since you lead it off with "Here's my video".

Since it's not even possible to see if the balls you're hitting are in, it's hard to comment on pure form. As I said, thousands of kids have pretty strokes...

True story from one of my son's coaches: he went to his first Futures qualifying. He said it was somewhere in South or Central America (don't remember which). He walked into the facility from an elevated position and looked down on all the courts and saw dozens upon dozens of players rallying. They all had beautiful cookie-cutter strokes and he said he thought "I can't beat any of these guys". But, it turned out that while they had picture perfect form, they didn't have the natural talent for reading the ball, the strategy, the drive, the mental strength, etc. and he made it through the qualifying relatively unchallenged.

10isDad - I'm not sure how your remark was supposed to be helpful. If my video was not helpful whatsoever in assessing anything about my game, then I don't think you need to comment on it. You don't need to repeat how many kids have pretty strokes, although I take that as a compliment because it implies you think I do.

And no, this is not a college tennis video. It is simply a video to showcase my strokes. I had no intention of giving the connotation that this video was going to be shown to college coaches.

Well, you posted the thread in the college section, so there's somewhat of an implication that this is a college recruiting video - especially since you lead it off with "Here's my video".

Since it's not even possible to see if the balls you're hitting are in, it's hard to comment on pure form. As I said, thousands of kids have pretty strokes...

True story from one of my son's coaches: he went to his first Futures qualifying. He said it was somewhere in South or Central America (don't remember which). He walked into the facility from an elevated position and looked down on all the courts and saw dozens upon dozens of players rallying. They all had beautiful cookie-cutter strokes and he said he thought "I can't beat any of these guys". But, it turned out that while they had picture perfect form, they didn't have the natural talent for reading the ball, the strategy, the drive, the mental strength, etc. and he made it through the qualifying relatively unchallenged.

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Exactly. There are plenty of kids in the southwest that I have hit with, and when we are rallying they have beautiful strokes. Clean strokes, so smooth and then we play and I beat them easily. Why? The pressure, the ability to execute is something that can't be taught. It has to be learned through experience. I say this in complete respect of my peers because I was at that stage at one point as well. I had beautiful strokes and playing points I could easily hold my own but once I got into matches everything changed. So, yeah. 10isdad is right.

Alright I understand all this...my video clearly wasn't helpful at all and I'm sorry. I was honestly just trying to showcase my groundstrokes and had planned to post follow up videos. I had already posted it in the tennistips/instruction and I decided to post it here just so hopefully more people would comment on it.

If you really want to play college tennis you need to sign up for some tournaments asap. You need to have a tennis resume per se. Right now, unfortunately you don't have much to put on your resume. Don't get discouraged, you might end up winning the tournament you sign up for.

I played #1 at a large D1 school. I am not an expert, but I do have some experience. I know plenty of my buds growing up that had state rankings and couldn't make the team at their school. Not trying to discourage, but college tennis is very competitive. Keep in mind probably half the spots are filled by foreigners so you are not just competing against your buddies here in the states.

I will tell you there is a HUGE difference between D1 and D2/D3 schools generally speaking. It is about the same difference as you see in football, etc. I wouldn't worry about the D1 deal. If you want to play college tennis find a program that wants you rather than a program that you have to beg to get a chance. It will be a more enjoyable college experience for you.

I took a look at your vid and I would have to say that making a spot in D1 for yourself at this time is not possible ..
it looks like half of the balls are sailing out and they are not hit with any real heavy spin... if you're gonna hit the ball so high you really need to put a ton more spin and hitting it with a full aggressive swing.. when you don't spin it in, the ball should be driven more, more flat lining drives ... your body position is too high making your movements a bit awkward.. you've ot to hit more through the ball especially on your one-handed backhand slice.. I didn't see you step into the ball to attack...
playing college tennis is a great life's experience ,but the first goal should be college itself...

From what I have seen of your groundies, your game is still developing. I would doubt very seriously that you have a shot at playing DI. Without seeing your serve, volleys, overheads etc. it is tough to gauge where you stand.

At the moment, your ground strokes alone would put you at about a 4.5 in Norcal. What about a good JC for two years and then try and move on to a 4 year school? I would think this is your best bet.

I took a look at your vid and I would have to say that making a spot in D1 for yourself at this time is not possible ..
it looks like half of the balls are sailing out and they are not hit with any real heavy spin... if you're gonna hit the ball so high you really need to put a ton more spin and hitting it with a full aggressive swing.. when you don't spin it in, the ball should be driven more, more flat lining drives ... your body position is too high making your movements a bit awkward.. you've ot to hit more through the ball especially on your one-handed backhand slice.. I didn't see you step into the ball to attack...
playing college tennis is a great life's experience ,but the first goal should be college itself...

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Nice comment , thats what I was going to say .....but I just wanted to add a few things as well !

1)Alot of time you were hitting it inside-out without any conviction , if I was playing against you I will fire it back to your forehand side in a flash.
2) Yours slice-backhand needed a bit more fellow-though and it doesnt seem to be low enough to be a defensive shot.
3) You got to take some of those shorter balls much earlier

Overall (from that video), you should manage a place in the college team , but probably not D1. :neutral:

Bending the knees more, rising up into the ball as you swing and putting more topspin on it, leaning the body weight into the shot so that your follow-through carries you a step forward every time, then developing the touch to take balls early after you have mastered these other things --- these are the things that a Division I college coach would want to see.

You probably look better than McEnroe while rallying from the baseline, if Mac were to shoot a similar video.

Does that mean a thing? Nope

Post videos of actual points in matches. Thats the only way to see your level.

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True ! Alot of players I know from D2/3 can hit the ball all day long , but the difference is when they are in match play , then you really see their ability. it will help if you are a thinker on the court as well, with a good mentality

Just watched the video again (cus it been quiet at work ) and you seem to step in for your backhand (good) but for your forehand you seem to wait....

From what I have seen of your groundies, your game is still developing. I would doubt very seriously that you have a shot at playing DI. Without seeing your serve, volleys, overheads etc. it is tough to gauge where you stand.

At the moment, your ground strokes alone would put you at about a 4.5 in Norcal. What about a good JC for two years and then try and move on to a 4 year school? I would think this is your best bet.

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4.5.....Are you serious?

He has pretty strokes, but he is just being fed balls, they arent balls with pace and it is not match play. It is easy to drive a ball well when it is just a feed.

That being said, maybe his strokes are like that during matchplay, I look forward to the time he puts of a video of himself in a match. So maybe I am wrong, maybe he is a 4.5, but not much can be judged from just ball-feeding strokes.

Simply put, 10isDad is an *******. On to your strokes-you generate very nice pace from both sides, and I like you switching it up once in a while and throwing in that slice. Very good consistency; I believe the shots that you hit into the net were due to getting tired, which is understandable after hitting 100 consecutive shots in less than 3 minutes. But overall, very good on both sides. I recommend forming a weapon which you can use throughout a match when you need a few cheap points-like a serve or drop shot or something along those lines. I constantly see pro's winning a game just off of first serves. About you playing in tournaments, I also recommend it...that's where you get experience and play under pressure for the first time, but very nice stuff(and you're fortunate enough to own a 1k ball machine haha)